Heart Rhythm Services

Rochester Regional Health’s Sands-Constellation Heart Institute offers specialized clinics and centers to diagnose and treat abnormal heart rhythms. Our leading-edge care for heart rhythm patients manages your symptoms, provides critical stroke prevention strategies, and offers innovative treatment approaches for your cardiac arrhythmias.

To schedule a consultation or to make a referral, please call (585) 442-5320.

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Heart Rhythm Conditions We Treat

Our Heart Rhythm team treats conditions that affect the beating of your heart, including:

• Anxiety
• Atrial fibrillation
• Atrial flutter
• Cardiac arrest
• Bradycardia (slow heart beats)
• Heart palpitations
• Rapid heartbeat
• Pounding in the chest
• Shortness of breath
• Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT)
• Tachycardia (fast heart beats)
• Ventricular tachycardia (VT)

Heart Rhythm Care

We are proud to offer comprehensive heart rhythm (cardiac electrophysiology) services including:

• Atrial fibrillation management
• Cardiac Ablation of arrhythmias with cryoablation and radio frequency ablation
• Device Lead Extraction
• Electrophysiology studies
• Evaluation and treatment of: cryptogenic stroke, heart palpitations, sudden cardiac death, and syncope (fainting)
• Heart failure
• Heart rhythm consultation and management
• Hybrid surgical/catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation
• Implantation and follow-up of cardiac defibrillators, implantable loop recorders, pacemakers, and cardiac resynchronization devices
• Lead extraction
• Left atrial appendage occlusion
• WATCHMAN device implant

Heart Rhythm concerns can produce a wide range of symptoms that may impact your day-to-day life, lead to serious problems, or pose a risk of sudden death.

Heart Rhythm Warning Signs

Symptoms that may indicate a heart rhythm problem include:

• Palpitations
• Dizziness
• Fainting (also called syncope)
• Lightheadedness
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Intolerance to exercise
• Rapid heart beat
• Pounding in the chest or neck 

If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, you may benefit from a Heart Rhythm evaluation. Call us at (585) 442-5320 to schedule a consultation.

Heart Rhythm Treatments

Rochester Regional Health’s expert electrophysiologists offer the most advanced and innovative treatment options available. They will work with you to customize treatment and provide individualized care.

Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) Clinic  

At least 2.7 million Americans are living with AFib, an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots, heart failure, and stroke. Our Heart Rhythm experts are your source for treating atrial fibrillation. We provide state-of-the-art care to manage your AFib and provide critical stroke prevention strategies that are a key part of atrial fibrillation treatment.

AFib treatment strategies

• Advanced ablation techniques – Catheter ablation techniques are always evolving, and the providers at the Sands-Constellation Heart Institute work tirelessly to stay up-to-date on the latest, most advanced options available. Atrial fibrillation can lead to remodeling over time, which changes the layers of heart tissue and how electricity is conducted in the heart. Advanced catheter ablation techniques – including Complex Fractionated Atrial Electrograms, Ganglionated Plexi Ablation, Stepwise Ablation, and a combination approach with CT surgery and Epicardial Ablation – target these changes in electrical conduction within your heart.
• Medical therapy – Your Heart Rhythm provider may prescribe medications to prevent and treat blood clots, or to control both your heart rate and rhythm. The prescribed medications may include Warfarin (or similar anticoagulants), beta or calcium channel blockers to control your heart rate, and sodium and potassium channel blockers to control your heart rhythm.
• Preventative strategies – Lifestyle changes can help you prevent Atrial Fibrillation. These strategies include getting regular exercise, managing your high blood pressure, eating a heart-healthy diet (one that is low in cholesterol, salt, saturated and trans fats), maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking.
• WATCHMAN device

Our AFib providers explore every option with you to determine which strategy will work best. Then, they’ll create an AFib management plan tailored to meet your individual needs.

To schedule an AFib consultation, please call (585) 442-5320

Remote Device Monitoring Clinic

We are pleased to lead the region with our Remote Device Monitoring services—sophisticated care for heart rhythm patients through remote monitoring of cardiac devices.

Our team reviews your remotely monitored information such as device function, battery status, lead alerts, and overall device performance to provide customized care. We can detect and treat heart rhythm problems that otherwise may have gone undetected. Remote device monitoring from home, or while out and about, is the way of the future, and the ease and convenience of our remove device monitoring is unparalleled in the healthcare industry today.

Our leading-edge remote monitoring and installation of therapy devices

• Cardiac resynchronization devices – A popular therapy for people whose ventricles do not contract in a synchronized fashion, cardiac resynchronization therapy may reduce your heart failure symptoms and risk of heart failure complications. Cardiac resynchronization devices are implanted in your chest to make your heart’s chambers contract in a more efficient way.
• Defibrillators – If you have a chaotic or dangerously fast heartbeat, a defibrillator may be suggested by your Heart Rhythm provider. After being placed in your chest, the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) will monitor the rhythm of your heart and detect irregular heartbeats.
• Implantable loop recorders – An implantable loop recorder records the electrical signals of your heart, allowing remote monitoring constantly for up to three years.
• Pacemakers – Used to treat arrhythmias, pacemakers are implanted in the chest or abdomen to control your abnormal heart rhythms by sending electrical pulses to help your heart beat regularly. 

Additional Benefits

For heart failure patients, remote monitoring has additional benefits. Overt and obvious changes in status such as weight change and shortness of breath often occur too late to prevent decompensation and hospitalization. Remote monitoring allows us to identify the subtle, silent changes early on, and allows changes in treatment before you have symptoms. 

This greatly reduces the need for hospitalizations for heart failure, and doing it remotely makes device monitoring seamless and effortless for you.

To schedule an AFib consultation, please call (585) 442-5320

Syncope Center 

The Syncope Center at Rochester Regional Health is a comprehensive center for the evaluation of fainting, dizziness, or palpitations. We use a unique, centralized approach to care that provides you with a quicker diagnosis and more effective treatment. Rather than sending you to multiple specialists at different locations, most of your evaluations will be performed at the Syncope Center.

What is Syncope?

Fainting, or “Syncope” (pronounced sink-oh-pee), affects millions of Americans each year. In fact, it is so common that one out of every three people has “passed out” at least once. Some causes of syncope are harmless, while others can be life-threatening. In serious cases, fainting can be a sign that you’re at risk of sudden death. 

Cardiovascular causes of syncope can be among the most serious. Change in your heart rhythm which inhibits proper pumping function is one of the most common heart-related causes. In these cases, the heart beats too slowly, rapidly, or irregularly to pump enough blood to key parts of the body, including the brain.

Other causes of syncope include some neurological disorders, psychological conditions, dehydration, and certain situations such as standing up too quickly or being in a hot room.

Am I a Candidate for the Syncope Center? 

If you have passed out, get dizzy easily, or have heart palpitations that leave you lightheaded, call the Syncope Center for an evaluation at (585) 368-4543.